English colonist in America, born at Clipsham, Rutlandshire. He emigrated to America with Winthrop and Endecott, June 12, 1630, to found a colony in a tract of land in Massachusetts, which, two years before, the Plymouth Company had granted them and others under the name of the Massachusetts Bay Company; they went first to Salem, but in a month removed to Charlestown, and there founded a colony and church. The church was afterward moved across to Boston and became “The First Church of Boston.” Johnson died a few months after his arrival, on the 30th of September 1630. His wife, Lady Arabella, a sister of the Earl of Lincoln, after whom Winthrop named his ship, died a month before her husband.
